Southwestern Corn and Crab Fritters with Sriracha Lemon Aioli

Remember how I said I hate to fry things?

So true.

Yet after making the Asian Orange Chicken the other day I still had fresh oil hanging out in my skillet that I didn't want to waste and honestly I'm just not the kind of person that likes to keep up with keeping old oil around for frying.  I don't fry nearly enough for something like that.

So I had this oil on my stove.  I also had a recipe that had been screaming for me to try it from the  Cans Get You Cooking collection on Allrecipes, the same place I found that tasty Beet and White Bean Salad recipe I made earlier this month.

So of course you know what I did- heated that oil up to 265° and got cooking!

BBQ Beef Cups and Football Season

Drumroll please...today I bring to you THE FIRST FUN RECIPE OF FOOTBALL SEASON!

Woohoo!  Game day food!

Good night, what has happened to me over the past few years?  When I did I actually start to care about and look forward to football rather than simply suffering through it next to my husband?

I don't know exactly how all of this transpired...but it has.

And here I sit- actually eagerly anticipating the Seahawks/Cowboys preseason game this week.

What.  Is.  Wrong with me.

Dunno.

Do you know what I do know?

Football food is fun and you and I?  We have several months more of fun game day foods to go.

Asian Orange Chicken and Organized Freezers

So back when I was settling into the whole stay-at-home-mom gig and I was keeping myself super busy playing Super Homemaker I was really good about keeping a soup file.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it a time or two on the blog.  Just about any time I cooked something that lent itself to freezing I would triple or quadruple the batch and freeze the extra.  After cooling I would divide the extra between freezer bags, freeze them flat, and then store them vertically- it's absolutely amazing how much food you can fit into a freezer when you handle your freezer space that way.  It makes both menu planning and last minute good meals amazingly easy when you're a quick defrost away from dinner.  I'd been handling leftovers like this for quite awhile when I read a magazine article with Jamie Lee Curtis coining the phrase "soup file" and I thought it was pretty great so I stole it for myself.  :-)

The Best Hamburger Buns I've Ever Eaten

I've never EVER been as impressed with a roll recipe as I am with this one.  I've made a lot of bread recipes over the years, so it really takes something special to get that kind of a response out of me.

Honestly, I don't make hamburger buns very often, unless I really don't feel like going to the store and I'm running short on time, in which case I have my go-to 40 Minute Hamburger Buns.  It's far more likely that I'll just grab a cheap bag of buns from the grocery store.

I'm not sure what it was about this recipe that caught my eye, maybe I was just in the mood to try out a new bread recipe- it's been awhile since I worked with yeast other than my favorite white bread recipe.  Whatever the reason, I set to work on these yesterday afternoon so I'd have them ready for dinner last night.

Simple and Delicious Barley Corn Salad

I'm honestly not really sure whether this Barley Corn Salad recipe is brought to you by my unceasing love of grain salads or my magical pantry which I swear to you continues to refill itself with odd grains just as quickly as I can use them.  Whichever it might be, I'm quite pleased that I get to share it with you!

So first of all, much like the Barley Lime Fiesta Salad I shared with you last summer, I didn't use any barley whatsoever in this.  Sorry for the misnomer.   While I didn't have any barley on hand I did have sorghum.   Sorghum just happens to be a delicious substitute for barley, so I was in luck.  :-)

Sorghum is a whole grain that tastes mild and a little earthy.  While they taste nothing alike, it looks a lot like Israeli couscous.  It's delicious in soups and salads and it's right up my "I like to cook weird stuff" alley.  Apparently you can even pop it like popcorn (!), though I've yet to give that one a try.  It's one of those things that I don't often think to cook with, but I should cook with often because it's filling yet light and delicious.

Not Quite Peruvian Pickled Veggies

I stumbled across the most amazing restaurant about a year ago.  It's Peruvian- and lets be honest, I know absolutely nothing about Peruvian food, so I have no idea how authentic it is. What I do know is that the food this place serves is seriously up there with the best food I've ever eaten in my life.  

I've tried several of the appetizers there- causa limeña, yuca, plantains, etc.  I've had a delicious soup with quinoa.  I've tried my husband's chicken with passion fruit.  However I have only ordered one entree myself.  I'm sure the entire menu is delicious and I'm missing out on loads of good food but I just can't help myself, I have to order it every time we go- that adobo arequipeño is just too good to miss out on.  I can't imagine how anything could possibly be better than that dish!  Ohmygoodness it's tasty.  Pork stew over white rice and sweet potatoes...it's perfection.  Sitting there on the plate next to all of this goodness is a little pile of pickled red onions called Salsa Criolla.

When I saw a recipe for salsa criolla I knew I had to try it.

Basic BBQ Spice Rub

When my husband and I first started dating life was a little hectic.  I was working long hours and to be honest cooking a full meal for myself was not something I had a lot of time or energy to do.

Thankfully, one of the first things I learned about that man is that he can totally hold his own in the kitchen.  I would get home from work after dark and he would bring over food.

Not like, "Hey, I'm running by Taco Bell, want me to grab you something?" food, but real food.  Things like scallops.  He won me over with his scallops and roasted red pepper sauce.

He'd get everything prepped at his place and then show up on my doorstep with coolers and bags and finish everything in my kitchen while I unwound after work.

:-) I married a good one, ladies.

Anyway, to be honest these days I do almost all of the cooking.  It just makes sense now that I'm home with the kids.  The exception to that is that my husband is the King of the Grill.  I may make the side dishes, dry rubs, and sauces but that man works magic with his grill(s).  It's so much fun to create together, after all of these years.  :-) Together we do awesome things.